Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMUoHP) is excited to announce the new Functional Nutrition Certificate (FNC) program, available starting May 2021.
The FNC program is offered entirely online and is designed to increase the student’s knowledge and abilities in regards to functional nutrition. Students will improve their ability to identify how nutrients influence the genome and their relationship to health and wellness, learn about the changing nutritional needs throughout the lifespan, understand how to better use food as a natural medicine while addressing physical performance functioning, and integrate nutrition into their interdisciplinary assessment and care planning.
Knowledge and understanding of functional nutrition plays a major role in a functional medical approach to clinical practice and patient outcomes. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, there are three hallmarks of a functional medicine approach:
- Patient-centered care. Functional medicine practitioners listen to the patient and learn their story to bring the patient into the discovery process and tailor treatments that address the individual’s unique needs.
- Integrative, science-based healthcare approach. Functional medicine practitioners learn to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can bring about an illness. The unique genetic makeup of every patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body, and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning.
- Preventative-focused care. Functional medicine practitioners integrate traditional Western medical practices with alternative or integrative medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets or stress-management techniques.
The FNC program will help students integrate functional medical approaches into their practice and provide expanded benefits to patients through an understanding of functional nutrition.
Students interested in applying to the FNC program must have a master’s or professional degree. Those with a bachelor’s degree who are looking to obtain this certificate will be considered on an individual basis and are required to have an appropriate background in biology, chemistry, physiology, and anatomy. RMUoHP also offers a Master of Science in Health Science degree with a concentration in Functional Nutrition, open to applicants with a bachelor’s degree.
For more information regarding the FNC program visit the Functional Nutrition Certificate website.
— Jennifer Fletcher, RMUoHP Content Writer & Editor
Photo courtesy of Jamie Street, Unsplash
